A Heritable Crippling Anomaly in the Fowl

Abstract

THE present paper describes a new crippling abnormality involving the pelvis and the joints of the leg in the domestic fowl and persents genetic evidence for its inheritance.Many heritable anomalous conditions of the fowl have been reported (reviewed by Hutt, 1949, and Jull, 1952) including several affecting the legs. The abnormalities more closely resembling the one described herein are: Perosis or “slipped tendon,” neurolymphomatosis and congenital perosis. Polygenic inheritance of perosis was first demonstrated by Serfontein and Payne (1934). In this abnormality the Achilles tendon slips from the intercondylar groove of the tibial metatarsal joint and the latter bends inward. The effect of neurolymphomatosis on the sciatic and femoral nerves of the legs causes partial or complete paralysis. An inherited susceptibility to this disease (commonly called “range paralysis”) has been shown by Asmundson and Biely (1932), Gildow et al. (1940), Taylor et al. (1943), Hutt and Cole (1947) and …